ACT isn't a good measure of success

Last year South Carolina state government initiated a requirement for all high school Juniors to take the ACT exam. The first instance was last spring. Subsequently, last spring’s data results covering 3rd thru 8th and 11th grades showed poor performance in math and language skills.

The results came from our State Department of Education. Here’s the problem: The ACT scores range from 1 to 36 with a statistical mean of 21 and a standard deviation of less than five. This means about 70 percent of students attain scores from about 16 to 26. That gives them a letter grade of D. That is not what student GPA’s indicate. Clearly something is fundamentally wrong.

Inquiries I made to the college admissions for Clemson, University of South Carolina and Furman revealed that they require ACT scores of 25 minimum and SAT scores of 1200 minimum (out of 1600). Only 15 percent of all students taking these tests will achieve the required scores.

Both tests are rigidly timed such that, on average, students only complete two-thirds of the tests. They guess at the rest. There is no required preparation. If a pre-admissions testing process is actually to be useful, present ACT and SAT tests are a wrong choice.

The four-year colleges are not likely to complain because they’re mainly interested only in the top achieving students. Two changes, at least, will reveal the true capability of our high school students: Take away the extreme time limits to allow at least 50 percent more test time, and add a preparation process into our high school requirements. Some of the questions come from material that students took two to three years prior to taking the test.

While our public school students can be shown internationally to be under-performing, the statements such as those in Nathaniel Cary’s Greenville News article Oct. 24 are, in fact, misleading at least and are likely irresponsible on the part of state education.

Mr. Jason McCreary of Greenville Schools Quality Assurance (Cary’s article) cautioned that we are missing the better points of our school performance. For those who want a closer look, consider reviewing the 2015 International assessment for student performance on a country by country basis. A test named TIMMS for math and PIRLS for language show US students in a more favorable light – although not much above average.